10 November 2017

A new report has revealed that one in every 20 pregnant women or new mothers is made redundant, and many of these job losses are conducted unfairly.

The Unfair Redundancies during pregnancy, maternity leave and return to work report from Maternity Action found that many employers inaccurately labelled dismissals as 'redundancy' in an attempt to get around discrimination laws.

Maternity Action called for workers' rights protections to be improved for pregnant women and new mothers, noting in their research – which involved analysing the experiences of women who call its advice line – that many women late in pregnancy were forced into stressful selection processes, and that women were losing their jobs on return to work or even while off on maternity leave.